Mexico Remixed will be IU Bloomington's third annual Global Arts and Humanities Festival

For Immediate Release

Oct. 11, 2018

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Mexico Remixed, Indiana University Bloomington's third annual Global Arts and Humanities Festival, will kick off with a celebration of Día de los Muertos on Nov. 1 and continue throughout the spring semester of 2019.

View print quality imageMexico Remixed will kick off with a Day of the Dead celebration during the Nov. 1 First Thursdays Festival.

Inaugurated in 2016 with China Remixed and continued with India Remixed in 2017, the Global Arts and Humanities Festival brings contemporary artists and scholars from around the world to the Bloomington campus and highlights the creative expressions and intellectual contributions of a particular country or region.

Previous festivals have featured film screenings, performances, readings and exhibitions by internationally renowned artists such as Wu Man, Gene Luen Yang, Mira Nair and Salman Rushdie.

"China Remixed and India Remixed were groundbreaking events for our campus and extraordinary opportunities for our students," said IU Bloomington Provost and Executive Vice President Lauren Robel. "Each festival offered a unique series of shared cultural experiences that brought our international and domestic students together and affirmed our commitment to keeping the arts and humanities central and essential to life on the Bloomington campus. I'm excited to share in the wonderful, enlightening and uplifting experiences Mexico Remixed has to offer."

View print quality imageLa Casa participates in a First Thursdays Festival in October 2017. The organization will be a part of the Nov. 1 festival kicking off Mexico Remixed and celebrating Day of the Dead.Photo by Cadence Baugh, Indiana University

The Mathers Museum and Lilly Library will offer previews of their Mexico Remixed exhibits, and IU Cinema will screen the award-winning animated film "Coco" at 7 p.m.

"La Casa celebrates the Day of the Dead every year because it is a wonderful way to build community and celebrate life, those who are currently special in all our lives and those who have come before us," said La Casa director Lillian Casillas-Origel. "Whether you have celebrated it or not in the past, you can still feel a part of it because its core meaning is universal. Using the Day of the Dead as the opening event of Mexico Remixed programming further emphasizes IU Bloomington's goal to build community on campus and beyond."

Mexico Remixed will be the first Global Arts and Humanities Festival to include IU Arts and Humanities Council support for academic conferences on the Bloomington campus. Conferences related to Mexico Remixed begin in November with the American Literary Translators Association Conference and continue through the spring semester with Sounding Latinidades: A Symposium on Sound Studies and Latinx Cultures, the Chávez Undergraduate Research Symposium in Latino Studies and Voces del Pueblo: Lenguas Indígenas, Literatura, Culturas Vivas (Voices of the People: Indigenous Languages, Literature, Cultures Alive).

"Mexico Remixed is our most expansive Global Arts and Humanities Festival yet in terms of cross-campus collaborations and diversity of scholarship," said Ed Comentale, Arts and Humanities Council director and associate vice provost for arts and humanities. "The Bloomington campus is already a leader in research and creative activity focused on Mexican languages, history and culture. This year's Remixed festival simply amplifies the outstanding work already being done by talented people all across campus."

Throughout spring 2019, the Arts and Humanities Council will partner with departments, schools and other units across campus to host a variety of Mexican and Mexican-American artists, scholars and cultural luminaries, including:

View print quality imageGrammy Award-winning group Mariachi Los Camperos will perform at the IU Auditorium at 7 p.m. on Feb. 9 as part of Mexico Remixed.

January

Jan. 28: Robert McKee Irwin, professor of Spanish at the University of California Davis, will deliver a public lecture at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies related to his digital storytelling project "Humanizing Deportation."

February

Feb. 6 to 9: The Grunwald Gallery will host artist Ana Teresa Fernández for an artist's talk and workshops.

Feb. 26: The School of Art, Architecture + Design will host Alejandra Carrillo-Muñoz, head of Awamaki, an NGO connecting Peruvian artisans with the global market. The visit will include workshops with students and a public talk.

Feb. 27: Sujey Vega will give a public lecture related to her activism and recent book, "Latino Heartland: Of Borders and Belonging in the Midwest," focused on the relations between Mexican and non-Mexican Hoosiers in Indiana.

March

March 6: Jaime Hernandez, acclaimed comic book artist and co-creator of "Love and Rockets," will appear at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater for a public talk and book signing.

March 27: Chef Fany Gerson, founder of La Newyorkina, will work with staff from Residential Programs and Services to give a public talk and cooking demonstration.

March 28: Valeria Luiselli, award-winning author of "The Story of My Teeth," will give a public reading and book-signing at Buskirk-Chumley Theater and will work with students from the Creative Writing program during her visit.

March 28 and 29: The Latino Studies program will host the Chávez Undergraduate Research Symposium.

March 29:IU Cinema will host filmmaker Carlos Reygadas as part of the Jorgensen Lecture Series.

View print quality imageAs part of Mexico Remixed, Valeria Luiselli will give a public reading and book signing as well as work with students in IU's Creative Writing program.Photo by Alfredo Pelcastre

April

April 1: Ana Raquel Minian, assistant professor of History and of Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity at Stanford University, will deliver a public talk titled "Undocumented Lives: The Untold Story of Mexican Migration."

April 18 and 19: The Latin American Music Center and New Music Ensemble in the Jacobs School of Music will host workshops and performances by ÓNIX Ensamble and guest composers Gabriela Ortiz and Carlos Sánchez-Gutiérrez.

April 19: The Sounding Latinidades: A Symposium on Sound Studies and Latinx Cultures conference will be held on the Bloomington Campus.

Semesterlong exhibits and series

The Mathers Museum of World Cultures will present "México Indígena," an exhibit of select works from the museum's permanent collection highlighting the artistic productions of indigenous peoples of Mexico.

The Lilly Library will feature a special exhibit related to Mexico Remixed, "The Earliest American Imprints: The Book in Mexico in the Sixteenth Century." The exhibit will include a scholar's talk with David Szewczyk of the Philadelphia Rare Book & Manuscripts Company.

The Grunwald Gallery will feature "Of Bodies and Borders," an exhibit of artworks from Ana Teresa Fernández that will include a public talk by the artist.

IU Cinema will present a series of films about Mexico and by Mexican and Mexican-American filmmakers, highlighted by films from Carlos Reygadas.

The Wells Library will present a series of exhibits related to the works of Valeria Luiselli and Jaime Hernandez.

The Center for Latin American and Carribean Studies will present "Braceros," a digital photography exhibit on the experience of emigrants, in the Wells Library Scholars Commons, curated by John Mraz.

The Arts and Humanities Council will present a series of public talks in the Global and International Studies Building featuring scholars and journalists who work on a wide range of topics related to contemporary Mexican culture and politics.

For more information on these events and to keep up-to-date as new events are added, visit the Mexico Remixed website.

The Arts and Humanities Council and the Global Arts and Humanities Festival were created as part of Robel's Bicentennial Strategic Plan for IU Bloomington, which includes among its primary objectives fostering diverse and global experiences for students, as well as emphasizing IU Bloomington's historic strengths in the arts and humanities.